


crack of a gun

by Accidie



Series: whumptober 2020 [1]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Arthur Whump, Dutch van der linde whump, F/M, Gen, Held at Gunpoint, No 2. IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY, No 3. MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY, Pick who dies, Pre-Canon, Whump, Whumptober 2020, Young Arthur Morgan, Young Dutch van der Linde
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26813224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accidie/pseuds/Accidie
Summary: “I killed your brother,” he had begged, “Not Arthur, not her. Kill me.”“Oh, I will kill you, Dutch, but not today,” Colm had said. “Now you gotta choose.”-For Whumptober 2020, on the prompt “Pick Who Dies”
Relationships: Annabelle/Dutch van der Linde, Arthur Morgan & Dutch van der Linde
Series: whumptober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1973152
Comments: 18
Kudos: 62
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	crack of a gun

_“I killed your brother,” he had begged, “Not Arthur, not her. Kill me.”_

_“Oh, I will kill you, Dutch, but not today,” Colm had said. “Now you_ _gotta_ _choose.”_

Colm had always been a cruel son of a bitch. 

He should have heeded Hosea’s advice to not get mixed up in his bunch, Colm had been trouble from the beginning, just like his brother. 

_“Pick who dies,”_ Colm had told him, “ _Or I’ll shoot both of them.’_

It didn’t feel real, like a nightmare that he couldn’t wake up from. 

He feels like he is going to puke at any moment, with Annabelle and Arthur on their knees just a few feet away from him, both bruised, beaten, and tied up, with Colm and his crew behind them, all armed to the teeth. 

“I am getting impatient, Dutch,” Colm says. 

It’s not a choice he ever thought he had to make, a choice between his son and his lover. 

Arthur, who was barely twenty, who he had planned a whole future around. And dear, dear Annabelle, who he never should have brought into this life in the first place, who he had only known for little less than a year. She, of all people, didn’t deserve this. 

He couldn’t say her name, he couldn’t. She was innocent. Unlike Arthur, who knew the risks, who was doomed to die young, an outlaw's fate. 

Annabelle _deserved_ to live. 

She didn’t seem to think so, though, in the way she glared at him for not making up his mind already. 

“Don’t you dare, Dutch,” Annabelle says in a low, warning tone. He hears the fear in her voice, she had never been good at controlling her emotions. She and Arthur had never gotten along. She wasn’t soft and friendly like Bessie, who had loved the boy from the start. 

Annabelle had called him a nuisance, a brat- all kinds of words, really. 

And yet, she seemed to want him to live over her because she was a good woman, better than any of them. 

It isn’t such a hard choice in the end. 

“The boy,” Dutch says, his voice almost failing him. “Shoot the boy.” 

He is aware of Annabelle yelling at him, but he hardly hears her, it feels like he has cotton in his ears, it just sounds like distant thunder, or the roaring of a waterfall far away. 

He can’t block out the sight of Arthur’s face crumbling, though. It breaks his heart, and God, he might kill himself once this is over out of pure guilt, over not being able to protect his son well enough. Hosea would never forgive him for this- he would never be able to forgive himself. 

But really, what did Arthur expect? He had always lived on borrowed time; he would have died long ago if it wasn’t for him and Hosea. 

And Annabelle is an innocent woman, a woman he loves. 

“It seems like your daddy don’t like you that much,” Colm leers, grabbing a fistful of Arthur’s hair to force him to look up again. The surprise is evident on the bastard's face. It seems like Colm had expected it to go in another direction. “Is that a man you want to die for, hm? Don’t you wanna reconsider my offer now, son, or will I have to blow your pretty head open?” 

Of course, Colm would bring that up again, the man had been obsessed with Arthur from the start, he had always tried to get Arthur on his side. 

Arthur clenches his eyes shut. “Go to hell,” he says, ever so loyal. 

He didn’t deserve that boy, didn’t deserve Annabelle either, and judging by the way she looks at him like he’s the worst man in existence, he thinks he will lose her too after this. 

“Well then,” Colm says with a sigh, releasing Arthur from his grip, raising his gun so it’s aligned with Arthur’s head. “It has been a good run.” 

Dutch closes his eyes. 

A shot rings out. 

When he opens his eyes again, it’s Annabelle’s body that falls to the ground. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope this was okay! please let me know if you liked it!


End file.
